How does an artist lay out a page?

As we prepare to start our second issue of D'n'A, I thought I'd study a page of work from the co-creator of Spider-Man, Steve Ditko. This is from Machine Man #13, 1979. Here's how I followed Steve's work, step by step.






Here's me putting together one of my pages:
http://ceaseill.blogspot.com/2010/07/dna-single-event.html

So, to start off my layout challenge, I began drawing the shapes in the first two panels.

I started adjusting, to deal with the overall page proportions.
















I actually worked on the last panel last.


This process of darkening parts of the figure---to give the figure or object density---is referred to as "spotting blacks."
It's the inker's job to fill these areas completely.





Over on integr8dfix.blogspot.com, you'll find a 20 min. version of page two! I'll keep going. I'd love to see someone else try their own page! Lue Lyron

I decided to add that second page, here:

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